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This paper's purpose is to describe an investigation of whether the addition of an interlibrary loan link as an option in the OpenURL link resolver menu has an effect on interlibrary loan requests for articles.

Four years of link resolver clickthrough data were analyzed in conjunction with ten years of interlibrary loan article request data.

The data showed that requests to ILL increased at first, then fell, and then rose again. There is a correlation between link resolver clickthroughs and ILL requests.

This paper employed data gathered over a longer time period than previous research on this topic and thus provides a broader exploration of the effect of providing links to ILL through a link resolver. While most OpenURL clickthrough data employed in research are gathered from the SFX OpenURL resolver, here the authors used WebBridge.

This paper offers an example of how non‐SFX institutions can employ clickthrough data to explore issues such as user behavior with regard to ILL.

The OpenURL standard provides a mechanism to transport metadata or identifiers of a digital item from one resource to another as well as a way to construct links in a dynamic linking environment. The OpenURL standard provides a means of integrating electronic resources. This article first describes some integration issues for electronic resources in the library and continues to discuss types of URL before giving an overview of the OpenURL standard and the OpenURL linking system, the link resolver. The major OpenURL linking products and host solution options are described, and the impact of the OpenURL standard and OpenURL linking system on library users and library services are discussed. New developments in the OpenURL standard and OpenURL linking systems are provided in the concluding section.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the benefits of integrating a digital preservation system into the library as a way to ensure uninterrupted access to e‐journals and e‐books.

This paper introduces the concept of a digital preservation system, and shows how it can made to benefit end‐users through a simple integration with the online pubic access catalogue (OPAC), to ensure continuous access to a library's e‐journals and e‐books.

A digital preservation system ensures that libraries continue to have access to on‐line assets once a subscription is cancelled or the publisher discontinues access. It extends the traditional library model of print journals and books on the shelf to encompass digital media. Providing end‐user access to preserved content can be simplified by integrating the online public access catalogue (OPAC) with the digital preservation system through a link resolver. End‐users can access the preserved content using an interface they already know, and the integration guards against publisher outages to provide continuous access to the library's digital collection.

The techniques shown in this paper can be extended to integrating digital preservation systems with other library systems.

This paper illustrates a simple way for the library to ensure that end‐users have un‐interrupted access to digital assets, even if it is necessary to cancel a subscription or there is a temporary disruption in service from the publisher.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the benefits of OpenURL in a library setting.

A discussion of how OpenURL was implemented at Dowling College through the creation of a home‐grown resolver. The benefits and potential problems of such a solution are also covered.

OpenURL has made locating the appropriate copy simpler for students and faculty and improved library services, such as reference and interlibrary loan.

The paper provides encouragement and ideas for smaller libraries who wish to implement OpenURL but do not have the funds or desire to pursue commercial solutions. It also provides ideas on different services that can be implemented with OpenURL in all libraries.

Linking in the scholarly environment has built on the basic linking capabilities of the World Wide Web and evolved to make the research process faster and more efficient. There are many components in the current linking environment and they often overlap and frequently inter‐operate. Despite the advances, linking is still in its infancy and future evolution will be rapid, especially as the underlying technologies evolve. This paper describes the current scholarly linking environment, its evolution, its components, and what we have to look forward to in the future.

This paper seeks to report a data‐driven assessment of student and faculty use of electronic scholarly resources pre‐ and post‐implementation of an open‐URL link resolver.

Usage data were extracted from two multidisciplinary scholarly aggregators pre‐ and post‐implementation of an open‐URL link resolver. Open‐URL link resolver usage data for both aggregators were also collected and two timelines established. Statistical analysis was performed to assess direct and indirect impact.

Study results show that the implementation of an open‐URL link resolver has directly contributed to usage increase in the short and long periods under study. Usage patterns also indicate the technology has indirect impact.

Limitations include one‐semester limits of short‐term data. Non‐standardized data could be compared only within each aggregator.

Research outcomes provide a tool for the assessment of student/faculty use of electronic scholarly resources and Collections and Catalog librarian participation in teaching and learning. Usage data are increasingly available to librarians, so work based on research findings can be assessed.

This paper reports student/faculty usage data of searching activities, not their perceptions of electronic resources. Usage data demonstrate that librarians who select and provide access to electronic resources positively affect teaching and learning.

The purpose of this paper is to explore a topic where blind participants expressed significant concern: obtaining full text and accessible full text.

This qualitative study includes 18 open-ended telephone interviews with blind academic library users in the USA. The study uses the viewpoint that understanding blind peoples’ perspectives is essential for equal accessibility.

Locating full text via link resolvers seemed problematic. Inaccessible articles and complications and delays creating accessible versions of print books limited participants’ use of materials. Enabling technologies and services were highlighted.

Caution should be used when generalizing from this study due to its sample size and methodology. The study is not a web accessibility test, which would analyze coding, nor a usability test, which would observe users. Additional research would be ideal; however, libraries should not wait to attend to accessibility.

In addition to improving digital accessibility, to address difficulty obtaining full text, libraries could offer to locate full text for blind users and implement SmartLinking and single sign on authentication. To deal with inaccessible full text, libraries could work with disability offices to obtain accessible materials and to convert materials to accessible format. DRM free HTML or EPUB e-books can have accessibility advantages. Outsourcing conversion to accessible format can also help. Libraries could offer reader service to assist blind users locating relevant sections of books to convert.

Compared to previous studies, this study includes a larger number of blind screen reader users; describes some unique issues; and includes blind users’ own interpretations.

The purpose of this paper is to recount the implementation process of the special effects (SFX) linking to Journal Citation Reports (JCR) at the Briggs Library, South Dakota State University.

Following the standard procedure developed by this paper, the research work consulted Ex Libris Customer Center, Listservs and library science literature for existing solutions to implement the SFX linking to JCR. The integration of JCR with SFX at University of Iowa Libraries was identified. Based on their implementation experience, the Briggs Library developed a more efficient method, which followed SFX standards.

A standard procedure has been developed that should be adopted for implementing new SFX services. A new target parser for JCR was created, which can become a global SFX target parser once its responsibility for updates is transferred to Ex Libris. The new method for implementing the SFX linking to JCR was invented.

The paper provides a standard procedure for implementing new SFX services. The method for implementing the SFX linking to JCR should be instructive when implementing similar projects.

The purpose of this paper is to observe how undergraduate students approach open-ended searching for a research assignment, specifically as it affected their use of the discovery interface Primo.

In total, 30 undergraduate students were provided with a sample research assignment and instructed to find resources for it using web tools of their choice, followed by the Primo discovery tool. Students were observed for 30 minutes. A survey was provided at the end to solicit additional feedback. Sources students found were evaluated for relevance and utility.

Students expressed a high level of satisfaction with Primo despite some difficulty navigating through more complicated tasks. Despite their interest in the tool and previous exposure to it, it was usually not the first discovery tool students used when given the research assignment. Students approached the open-ended search environment much like they would with a commercial search engine.

This paper focused on an open-ended search environment as opposed to a known-item scenario in order to assess students’ preferences for web search tools and how a library discovery layer such as Primo was a part of that situation. Evaluation of the resources students found relevant were also analyzed to determine to what degree the students understood the level of quality they exhibited and from which tool they were obtained.